TAKING THE PULSE Contingency Planning
Events during the past several years, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the resulting financial crisis, demonstrated the importance of contingency planning for companies across all industries and market caps. The NIRI Pulse Poll survey of investor relations (IR) professionals conducted in July 2024 examined contingency planning practices. The 57 anonymous responses came from IR professionals representing small to mid-cap companies (47%), followed by large and mega-cap companies (39%), and micro-cap companies (14%). The majority (88%) of respondents have contingency plans in place or are in the process of creating contingency plans. A total of 80% of respondents reassess and/or test these plans on a regular basis. IR
Prevalence of Contingency Plans by Situation
PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS THAT HAVE THESE PLANS
TYPE OF CONTINGENCY PLAN Data Breach
Natural Disaster CEO or CFO Transition
Critical Asset Failure (plant shutdown, network outage, etc.) Pandemic
Environmental Incident
Economic Recession or Other Major Market Fluctuation Geopolitical Event
Succession of Key Staff Activist Investor
PERCENT 83%
71% 69% 66% 51% 46% 40
34% 31% 17%
Despite being an integral part of crisis communications, only 46% of IR teams are included on their company’s contingency planning committees; however, 71% of IR teams were involved in drafting the contingency plans in some way.
What elements are included in your company’s contingency plans?
PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS THAT INCLUDE THESE ELEMENTS IN THEIR PLANS
CONTINGENCY PLAN ELEMENTS Responsive timeline
Draft press releases
RASCI chart or other type of responsibility assignment matrix Buy-side communication plan Sell-side communication plan Draft presentations
PERCENT 71%
57% 43% 37% 34% 29%
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FA L L 2 0 24 ■ IR UPDAT E
niri.org/ irupdate
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